PLANO, Texas – Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas is hosting an urgent gathering on April 13 designed to empower, engage and equip Christians and churches in the arena of foster care and adoption. The CHOSEN Conference will feature plenary sessions and vital breakout sessions where attendees can learn best practices for how to provide loving homes for children who need them and to help support families who foster or adopt.
“I truly believe the CHOSEN Conference is among the most important gatherings we’ve ever hosted at Prestonwood,” said Senior Pastor Jack Graham. “It is critical that Christians hold fast to the mandate of James 1:27 by learning how to care for the most vulnerable among us – children without families. Our prayer is that more and more churches will answer the call to make a difference in the lives of these precious children.”
Send Relief, the compassion ministry arm of Southern Baptists, and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) have helped Prestonwood organize the event.
“Send Relief is thankful for Prestonwood’s commitment to help churches engage in caring for vulnerable children through the CHOSEN Conference,” said Josh Benton, Send Relief’s national vice president. “No matter the community, city or state a church is in, vulnerable families are there. Adoption and foster care ministry isn’t only an opportunity that exists somewhere else; it’s everywhere.”
Sadie Robertson Huff, popular speaker, author, social media influencer, and a member of the Duck Dynasty family will serve as one of the conference’s keynote speakers.
“I am so excited to be a part of the CHOSEN Conference,” said Sadie, whose parents are Willie and Korie Robertson. “As you all know, adoption is near and dear to my family’s heart, and I can’t wait to talk about it and talk about the love of God.”
Korie Robertson will join her daughter as one of the featured speakers at the conference. Korie and Willie have six children – three are biological children, two are adopted and one is a foster child – and she has invested time as an advocate for foster care and adoption.
“Adoption gives us a glimpse of how much God loves us because we are His sons and daughters adopted into the family of God,” Robertson said. “We know that giving children a family is close to the heart of God because James describes taking care of orphans as pure and faultless.”
Also among the featured speakers are Shane and Kasi Pruitt. Shane serves as the National Next Gen Director for the North American Mission Board. The Pruitts have six children, two biological and four adopted, including one in heaven. Also speaking is Gregg Matte, senior pastor of Houston’s First Baptist Church.
Along with the plenary speakers, renowned specialists in adoption and foster care will be on hand to lead breakout sessions on the varied challenges. The sessions will center on three pillars of adoption and foster care ministry as represented by these three tracks: empower local churches to establish adoption ministries, engage believers to understand their role in adoption and foster care, and equip adopting and fostering families.
“Churches have an important role in recognizing the need that exists, articulating the biblical call to meet the need, and blessing those in their congregation who are led to pursue foster care, adoption and orphan care,” said Benton. “The CHOSEN Conference is an exciting opportunity for churches to learn how to serve vulnerable families in their communities and all over the world.”
To learn more about the conference and register, visit prestonwood.org/chosen.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board.)
